OLD_San Francisco Public Defender's Office

San Francisco, CA – A new strategy for dealing with gangs is responsible for a dramatic decline in homicides in Los Angeles, according to a front-page story in today’s Los Angeles Times. The strategy involves a community-based, law enforcement program that works collaboratively with ex-gang members to prevent gang violence.

According to the Times, the notoriously crime ridden city got through the traditionally violent summer months with 167 gang-related homicides, compared with 214 for the same period last year. L.A. Police Chief William Bratton said he believes the city will end up with the lowest number of homicides in 37 years. The significant decline in homicides includes a 50% drop in killings in some South L.A. neighborhoods, such as Watts, reported the Times.

The new gang strategy, developed after Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Bratton vowed a crackdown, relies on the help of local gang intervention workers, many of whom were gang members. According to the Times, when a homicide occurs, police contact gang interventionists, who LAPD officials say are particularly good at “rumor control” and calming tensions to prevent retaliation. This shift in strategy is a dramatic departure from previous gang violence strategies that involved injunctions, mass arrests, and sweeps.

“Gang interventions techniques such as these are exactly what is need in San Francisco to effectively combat gang violence,” says Public Defender Jeff Adachi. “When you invest resources in prevention and intervention at a community level, you see results. Instead, San Francisco seems intent on disregarding the lessons learned by other cities and continues to waste resources by pursuing unproven gang suppression tactics, like gang injunctions.”

The article noted that Los Angeles gang injunctions had created recriminations between police and gang-intervention workers, who later worked together to reach an agreement as to how to remove people from gang injunction lists. “I hope we can learn from their example and avoid gang injunctions altogether,” Adachi said.

According to the Times report, Devon Harris, 16, was killed in June after he and his friends got into a quarrel with some other teens in Watts. Within a week after interventionists hit the streets, there was an arrest in the case and no retaliatory shootings occurred.

The Los Angeles Times article can be viewed at www.latimes.com. The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office maintains a “Gang Injunction Resources” page that can be viewed at http://sfpublicdefender.org/.

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San Francisco, CA – On September 15, 2007, the Organization of Chinese Americans, San Mateo Chapter, honored San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi at their 20th Annual Asian American Achievement Awards Gala. The Awards Gala was held at the South San Francisco Conference Center.

“It is an honor to be recognized by the OCA,” says Public Defender Jeff Adachi. “The OCA is committed to advocating for social justice, equal opportunity and fair treatment of the nearly 13 million Asian Americans in the United States. This is certainly a goal that I share and one that has driven many of my professional choices in life. In fact, it was through my work on the case of Chol Soo Lee, a Korean immigrant on death row who was wrongfully convicted of murder, that I found my calling as a criminal defense attorney and advocate for minority and disenfranchised communities.”

Public Defender Adachi is San Francisco’s first Asian American Public Defender. Before being elected in March 2002, Adachi spent two years in private practice and nearly fifteen years as a deputy public defender. Working his way up from misdemeanors to felonies, Adachi has tried over 100 jury trials and has handled over 3,000 criminal matters throughout his career, including some of the Bay Area’s highest profile cases.

Recently, Adachi wrote, produced, and directed The Slanted Screen, an award-winning documentary film confronting Asian American stereotypes in American cinema. The film, which aired nationally on PBS in May 2006, garnered top awards at the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival, and the Berkeley Film Festival.

Other honorees at the Awards Gala included Noel Lee, Head Monster of Monster Cable, and Yvonne Lee, Principal of Lee Asian Community Affairs and Member of the San Francisco Police Commission.

The mission of the Public Defender’s office is to provide vigorous, effective, competent and ethical legal representation to persons who are accused of crime and cannot afford to hire an attorney. Established in 1921, the San Francisco Public Defender has a long, proud history of providing top-notch representation to its clients, and championing programs that help people turn their lives around.

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San Francisco, CA – Public Defender Jeff Adachi will represent 22-year old Antonio Buitrago, a named defendant in a gang injunction lawsuit filed by the City Attorney in San Francisco Superior Court, this Tuesday, September 18, 2007, at 9:30 AM, at the Civic Center Courthouse, 400 McAllister Street in San Francisco. Deputy Public Defender Chris Gauger will represent 19-year old Makia Johnson, named in a separate lawsuit filed against the alleged “Knock Out Posse” and “Chopper City” gangs in the Western Addition. San Francisco attorneys Rob Amparan, Nina Wilder and Karl Krooth will represent five additional named defendants in the Mission lawsuit.

Tuesday’s hearings will determine whether preliminary injunctions are to be issued in the Mission and Western Addition. The proposed Mission District injunction would cover a 60-block area in a neighborhood heavily populated by Latinos and would apply to people who law enforcement identify as members of the “Norteño gang” of Northern Mexican origin. Judge Patrick Mahoney will hear arguments on the Mission injunction in Courtroom 302, while Judge Peter Busch will hear arguments on the Western Addition injunctions in Courtroom 301.

Public Defenders Adachi and Gauger will argue that the City Attorney has erroneously named their clients as “gang members.” According to Public Defender Adachi, “Antonio Buitrago is not a gang member and never has been.” Furthermore, Adachi says that Buitrago has never been convicted or arrested for a crime. “The City Attorney claims that he was seen in the company of a suspected gang member on three occasions and that he sang two rap songs about gangs,” noted Adachi. “If this is the best that the City Attorney can do, I don’t think a gang injunction will have much effect.” The Public Defender has also filed several declarations from community residents and leaders who believe that the injunctions will have a negative effect in their neighborhoods and will make it more difficult for youth to leave gangs.

The Public Defender’s Office has also filed a declaration from an expert, Judy Greene, whose extensive study of gang injunctions found that the injunctions tend to displace, but not eliminate, gang crime. Public Defender Adachi and Deputy Public Defender Gauger are also expected to raise a number of constitutional arguments, including claims that the injunction violates first amendment freedom of association and that its terms are overbroad and vague.

“Mr. Buitrago’s is a classic case of ‘guilt by association,’” says Adachi “If the City is serious about reducing gang violence, then it must address the root causes of violence through jobs, education and other social services that are so lacking in these communities.”

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Public Defender Mission Gang Injunction Brief.
Public Defender Western Addition Gang Injunction Brief.

San Francisco, CA – Acclaimed writer and advocate, Luis J. Rodriguez, will give the keynote address at the San Francisco Safe Communities Reentry Council 2nd Annual Reentry Summit, “Working Together to Support San Franciscans After Incarceration,” on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 from 8:30AM to 4PM at Jack Adams Hall, César Chávez Student Center, San Francisco State University. Rodriguez, who will address reducing violence in our communities through successful reentry, is schedule to speak from 12:15PM to 1:15PM.

Rodriguez is best known for his 1993 memoir of gang life, Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A., which explores the motivation of gang life and cautions against the death and destruction that inevitably claim its participants. An international best seller—with more than 20 printings, around 250,000 copies sold—the memoir has earned a Carl Sandburg Literary Award, a Chicago Sun-Times Book Award, and was designated a New York Times Notable Book. The American Library Association has named Always Running as one of the nation’s 100 most censored.

Rodriguez is also recognized for helping start a number of prominent organizations, such as Chicago’s Guild Complex, one of the largest literary arts organizations in the Midwest; Rock a Mole Productions which produces music and art festivals, CDs and film; and Youth Struggling for Survival, a Chicago-based non-profit community group working with gang and non-gang youth. In addition, he is one of the founders of the small poetry publishing house Tia Chucha Press, as well as Tia Chucha’s Café & Centro Cultural—a bookstore, coffee shop, art gallery, performance space, and workshop center in Los Angeles.

“We are thrilled to have Luis Rodriguez as our keynote speaker,” says Public Defender Jeff Adachi. “The 2nd Annual Reentry Summit is about creating opportunities for people who have the will to turn their lives around. Rodriguez is a survivor, who through sheer determination was able to obtain the tools necessary to transcend social barriers and achieve mainstream success. Creating equal opportunities for people who have already paid their debt to society, so that they may do the same, is a necessary component to achieving justice.”

The Safe Communities Reentry Council (SCRC) was convened in 2005 by Public Defender Jeff Adachi and Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi. The goal of SCRC is to implement policies and programs that reduce recidivism and facilitate successful reentry into society for probationers and parolees returning to San Francisco communities.

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San Francisco, CA – A San Francisco woman, who was beaten senseless with a metal doorstop by her boyfriend and later charged with attempted murder after fending off a second attack, was acquitted on all counts Wednesday afternoon.

The incident began on April 25, 2007, when Whitney Keith Bearchild attacked his girlfriend, Drusilla Bailey, and beat her with a metal doorstop. A neighbor, responding to the commotion, called 911 after pulling Bearchild off Bailey. Bailey was immediately transported to San Francisco General Hospital where her injuries were photographed and she received 12 staples to her head. The San Francisco Police Department failed to conduct any investigation into the attack on Bailey and never interviewed their neighbor. As a result, Bearchild was not charged and returned to the home he shared with Bailey before her emergency protective order expired.

One week later, on May 4, 2007, the day that Bailey was to have her staples removed, Bearchild attacked Bailey again, striking her on her head. Bailey knew that the same metal doorstop he had beat her with before was still in the room and within his reach. In self-defense, Bailey grabbed a 3” paring knife and started swinging, causing four small puncture wounds to Bearchild’s neck, forearm, and thigh. Bailey was arrested about 30 minutes later.

Bailey was initially charged with attempted murder, but not held to answer to this charge at the preliminary hearing. She was ultimately charged, tried and acquitted of assault with a deadly weapon, a strike, as well as five lesser-included offenses. At trial, Bailey testified that she had acted in self-defense. Bearchild was granted immunity in exchange for his testimony and will never be prosecuted for his attacks on Bailey.

According to Bailey’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Christiane Hipps, “I would like to say that justice was done, but true justice means Ms. Bailey would not have lost four months of her life defending her actions in the first place. I am just happy that the jury saw the truth that Ms. Bailey was a battered woman, and the only real victim in this situation.”

The mission of the Public Defender’s office is to provide vigorous, effective, competent and ethical legal representation to persons who are accused of crime and cannot afford to hire an attorney. Established in 1921, the San Francisco Public Defender has a long, proud history of providing top-notch representation to its clients, and championing programs that help people turn their lives around.

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SAN FRANCISCO– A study published in the current issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry concludes that mental health courts reduce recidivism and violence among people with mental disorders. The study, Effectiveness of a Mental Health Court in Reducing Criminal Recidivism and Violence, was conducted by Dale E. McNeil, Ph.D. and Renee L. Binder, M.D., and focused exclusively on the criminal justice outcomes of the San Francisco Behavioral Health Court, where a substantial proportion of defendants are charged with felony offenses.

According to the report, the proportion of people entering U.S. jails who have severe mental disorders has been estimated to be between 6% and 15%, and the number of jail admissions involving people who have severe mental disorders has been estimated to be around 804,000 annually. People with mental disorders who are incarcerated tend to stay longer in jail than others charged with similar crimes and to cycle through the criminal justice system, the mental health system, and substance abuse treatment programs.

Deputy Public Defender Jennifer Johnson, who represents indigent mentally ill individuals in the Behavioral Health Court, states, “We are proud of the results of this study.  It confirms that treatment is not only the humane solution, but also one that benefits public safety and stops the revolving door of hospitalization, incarceration and homelessness.”

The Behavioral Health Court connects criminal defendants who have serious mental illness to treatment services, and endeavors to find dispositions to their criminal charges that take mental illness into consideration in order to decrease their chances of returning to the criminal justice system. To qualify for mental health court, defendants must be diagnosed as having a DSM-IV axis I mental disorder or, in some circumstances, developmental disabilities, and they must be amenable to treatment in the community mental health system. The court anticipates that relapses may occur, and it emphasizes positive reinforcement for successes rather than sanctions for failures. San Francisco instituted the Behavioral Health Court in 2003, which serves over 200 people each year.

The study can be found here: Effectiveness of a Mental Health Court in Reducing Criminal Recidivism and Violence.

The mission of the Public Defender’s Office is to provide vigorous, effective, competent and ethical legal representation to persons who are accused of crime and cannot afford to hire an attorney. Established in 1921, the San Francisco Public Defender has a long, proud history of providing top-notch representation to its clients, and championing programs that help people turn their lives around.